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Thursday, April 5, 2012

This blog was originally posted on the Aerohive HiveMind Blog, but I wanted to make sure that my regular readers on this site were informed. I will splitting my blogging between Aerohive and Revolution Wi-Fi from here on out, so you may notice some drop in the frequency of posts on this site. Please visit the Aerohive blog to read my posts over there as well!About a month ago I made the leap... I changed employers and
hopped over the fence from the customer side to the vendor side. I knew the
time was right, and the opportunity was right and I’ve been looking to put it
into words ever since. I’ve thought long and hard, searching for a deep insight
into why I made the decision to join Aerohive
Networks, let alone a vendor in general. Finally, I realized I was
over-thinking it. The reasons are simple...

Wi-Fi Is My Passion (and
a burgeoning industry)

The first reason comes down to doing what I love to do. I
started my career as a general technologist, working equally on building
networks, servers, data center facilities, and core services like DNS and
Active Directory. I quickly fell in love with networking because it was the
glue that held everything together.

Then I found Wi-Fi. I’m the first one to admit it, I’m a
dreamer (and an idealist). I love seeing how technology changes how we interact
with the world, how it influences our society, culture and behaviors. I’m a
people-gazer. Wi-Fi ignites my passion
because it is on the front lines, directly affecting people’s lives. In the
same fashion that Steve Jobs and Apple have changed how people interact with
each other and the world through the effective design and use of technology, I
think Wi-Fi has much the same effect. And I love being a part of that!

Wi-Fi gives one time to think and
reflect. No wonder I’m a dreamer!

This is me performing a site survey for
an outdoor mesh deployment.

I’m also very lucky to be involved in this industry at a
time when Wi-Fi is experiencing a second wave of growth. It really took off in
the home around 2003 with 802.11g. The release of 802.11n revitalized and
broadened the possibilities in the enterprise. And with the wave of mobile
devices, expansion of hotspots, and carrier offload, Wi-Fi is poised to play a
prominent role in how people stay connected in their personal and professional
lives like never before. Technology advancements like 802.11ac and 802.11ad
will be exciting enablers to make solutions for video more pervasisve.

I’m fortuitous to be working with a technology I love, in an
industry that is full of potential!

Innovating not
Following

The second reason, and specifically why I joined Aerohive,
is I believe in our technology. It’s important for me to work at a company that
has an innovative spirit and a forward-thinking vision. I believe Aerohive
offers that in spades!

I’ve worked with almost every Wi-Fi vendor solution on the
market, and while most are capable solutions, they’re also complex to deploy,
manage, and support for customers. In addition they’re spinning significant
development cycles on re-designing a controller architecture back into a
distributed architecture rather than on focusing on customer needs. We see this
with Cisco’s move towards FlexConnect, Aruba towards RAP and Instant, and with
Motorola toward Wing5. They’re busy making the Wi-Fi basics work in a
distributed fashion, incrementally migrating existing features back into the
access point. But they’re suffering from feature and scalability limitations
while doing so, and limiting their ability to innovate at the same time. They
are also validating the Aerohive position that was pioneered years ago with
Cooperative Control (albeit in a twisted fashion) – Thank You!

Aerohive offers a focus on innovation. I want to be a part
of that.

Relationships Matter

I’ll be the first to admit this... my success is a direct
result of the relationships that I form with other [very smart] individuals. I
learn best and succeed most when I surround myself with people smarter than I
am. This was true when I first started my career, getting mentorship from an
incredibly experienced radio and network engineer (thanks Tony, if you ever
read this). It’s still true, no matter how far I’ve come in my career.

Making friends, at -15° F (I’m far left)

Aerohive is a pool of incredible Wi-Fi talent. I know other
vendors are as well, but I think our team is especially so. It’s like a laundry
list of who’s who in the industry, not only from name recognition but from
respect. And respect matters a lot to me. Individuals like David Coleman,
Matthew Gast, Bob O’Hara, Joel Vincent, Abby Strong, and my new boss Devin Akin
are well-known thought leaders in this industry and well respected by everyone.
I can learn from these people, and will in buckets!

The leadership team also exudes confidence and experience in
running a small tech company and know how to succeed. We’ve got David Flynn, ChangmingLiu, Adam Conway, and others who have “been here, done it before” with
Netscreen and Juniper. These individuals give me great confidence on our
ability to execute and be successful.

The Right Fit

Putting all these things together, Aerohive was the right
fit.

I’m excited to be on the Aerohive team, and can’t wait to
evangelize Wi-Fi technology in general and our solutions in particular. We have
a lot to offer today and a ton more coming in the pipeline!